Pablo Sigal
03/15/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Society
Updated 03/15/2021 6:00 AM
The
83 percent
of those killed by coronavirus in Argentina are over 60 years.
However, 72 percent of the vaccines available in the country have been applied to other risk groups.
That is, younger people with a
lower chance of suffering serious complications.
The
imbalance
occurs because, unlike other countries, here the elderly did not make up
the first level of priority
.
The doses that arrived had recipients without a sustainable forecast: how many vaccines could actually be obtained in the short term and
for whom would they serve
.
That is, a
strategy.
The problem is not only the lack of vaccines - or the height of the VIP vaccination - but
how the shortage is managed
.
According to the Public Vaccination Monitor, a total of
2,394,800 vaccines
have been applied
and just over
668 thousand
were intended for those over 60. In some districts such as the City of Buenos Aires, those over 70 have not yet been summoned.
The bottleneck is usually attached to the
fragile production and delivery
of Sputnik V, but the letter of the purchase contract for the 20 million doses designed by the Gamaleya laboratory already opened the umbrella on eventual setbacks in shipments.
Although the Argentine government knew it, the Russian vaccines that arrived in the country were applied mostly
to children under 60 years of age
.
And that policy was continued even after Sputnik was made available for older adults.
An adult over 80 years old receives a dose in the Rural of the City of Buenos Aires.
Photo: Luciano Thieberger
Last week the next arrival of
another 3 million doses of Sinopharm was known
, which can only be used in people up to 59 years of age.
According to available information, the impediment of inoculating the most urgent age target with the Chinese vaccine would not change in the short term.
Official sources confirmed to
Clarín
that ANMAT
does not have new Sinopharm documentation
to evaluate.
"The papers" have not yet arrived in Argentina so that the national sanitary control agency can recommend or reject their approval for the elderly.
This
will widen the gap
between the younger and older vaccinated.
Based on this bureaucratic and scientific deficit, the Government seems to have no choice but to redirect the new vaccines that arrive from China
to the younger population.
Within the group of children under 60 years of age, there are
7.1 million people with some comorbidity
in the country
, to
whom 155,519 doses
have so far been allocated
.
That risk group, which in theory is one notch below the elderly in priority, will now benefit.
The only concrete response that today looms on the horizon of older adults continues to be the
AstraZeneca / Covishield
vaccine
, despite the doubts that its suspension has generated in some European countries after the report of collateral effects that should be investigated.
Last Saturday began a new distribution of a remnant of 399 thousand doses of Sputnik V. Photo: Presidency
With the doses of Covishield available until the end of March (1,160,000 produced in India), plus a remnant of 399 thousand doses of Sputnik V that began to distribute last Saturday, at least until April
only 1 in 5 over 60 years
would be guaranteed immunity.
As announced, the first AstraZeneca vaccines would be available next month, which are manufactured in the MabXience laboratory in Argentina and packaged in Mexico.
To this must be added the future, irregular and unpredictable new batches of Sputnik V.
Another unknown is Janssen, whose vaccine is administered in a single dose.
It has already been approved by the United States FDA and received the approval of the WHO.
The Government is negotiating its purchase, but the ANMAT informed
Clarín
that the laboratory "is adding information sequentially" and
could not specify an authorization period.
This cyclothymic vaccination, a bit "to the punches", leaves Argentina in the open in the face of winter, in the face of a possible second wave of coronavirus, with a
large part of the most vulnerable population still without acquired immunity
.
This, if not changed, could put the health capacity of hospitals and clinics to the test again in the coming months.
In a study from September 2020, when the Covid vaccine was almost a utopia, the WHO differentiated the risk groups to assess
who to vaccinate first
: on the one hand, those who are more exposed to the virus but are less vulnerable;
on the other, the least exposed but more likely to die if infected.
Vaccination of teachers in Mendoza with the Sinopharm vaccine.
Photo: Télam
Vaccination of doctors is part of the first group, although
not all health professionals have the same level of exposure
to the coronavirus.
In the Argentine campaign there was no discrimination: many were inoculated just for having their enrollment up to date, no matter where they work.
When reviewing the vaccination protocols of other countries, there are relevant differences.
Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Chile, for example, placed
doctors and older adults
at the
same level of priority
.
In general, the logic of privilege is based more on age than on activity.
While the
Argentine fatality rate
is
2.44 percent
, in the group over 60 years that rate climbs to
13.54 percent
.
In the case of health professionals, the mortality rate is
0.60 percent
.
In Mexico, the nation with the highest proportion of deaths of doctors and nurses, is 1.35 percent.
From there down, the rest of the priority professions within the national vaccination plan have
even more benign mortality rates
.
That is, government officials, teachers or security forces.
What turns the scale is always age.
However, for every dose devoted to these activities, there were fewer than two for those over 60.
The total universe of risk groups in Argentina is
25 million individuals
.
Those under 18 years of age (14.5 million) and those between 18 and 60 without comorbidities (14.7 million) are left out.
Older adults, about 7.4 million in the country, represent
almost 30 percent
of people considered at risk.
Vaccination operation for teachers from Río Negro with the Chinese vaccine.
Photo: Télam
Not only is the vaccine quota for those over 60, 28 percent, somewhat below the proportion that would correspond to them by the established protocol, but in this imbalance, those who de being infected are less likely to need an intensive care unit.
Some experts - few - consider that vaccinating young people could have its advantage for
"herd immunity
.
"
That is, so that the virus circulates less among citizens with greater social mobility, who are those who are most exposed to Covid in daily life.
But that has two problems: the first, that in order to achieve group immunity, it is presumed to have at least
60 percent of the people
inoculated and Argentina is far from that goal.
The second, that the answers of science to the question of whether those vaccinated can continue to infect have not yet been entirely conclusive.
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